The Alpha Financials project for the implementation of the Oracle Financials Cloud system has been underway for approximately 11 months. This extensive project is transformational for financial management and reporting for UC Merced. It will lay the foundation for ongoing enhancements and projects that will dramatically improve access to our financial data and transform how we work in the future by leveraging advanced business intelligence tools and processes.
The implementation team consists of staff from the Division of Finance and Administration (DFA), the Office of Information Technology (OIT), our implementation partner, Deloitte, and campus-wide stakeholders.
As part of the implementation process, the team has launched a website with extensive information about the Alpha Financials project. The site includes an overview, a timeline, and answers to frequently asked questions. We will keep the site updated with fresh information as we approach January 2021, when the campus will begin using the Oracle Financial Cloud’s capabilities.
The Alpha Financials project includes the integration of the Oracle system with many existing campus-wide systems. OIT staff, in coordination with Deloitte, have been working on creating the required integrations with these systems to ensure seamless continuation of business processing. These systems include but are not limited to Cashnet, Banner, CS Gold, UCPath and Concur.
In addition to the implementation of the Oracle Financials system, UCOP has created a new common chart of accounts to which all campuses will be converting. This conversion, like the Alpha project, is an extensive change. Many of you are familiar with your current departmental accounts or full accounting unit (FAU). The FAU will be changing to a chart string. The chart of accounts team has been working in coordination with the Alpha project on the mapping of the old chart of accounts to the new chart for more than a year and have completed the mapping of about 2 million segment values in support of the campus financial structure and reporting needs.
The implementation of the Oracle system with the new chart of accounts structure will provide real-time processing and information while enhancing financial reporting capabilities to the campus.
Please visit the Alpha Financials project website to learn more about the project and the Oracle Cloud system.
